It’s been about a month since I began my study abroad experience and it has been one heck of a ride. I am so lucky that I have been able to embark on this journey with two of my closest friends, of whom I feel closer to than ever. They have really made my experience so much more fulfilling and I’m not sure I could have done this without them.
My journey to England was tiring to say the least. I have never been on such a long flight and arrived having not slept in about a day or so. Getting through customs took more than two hours and I was so exhausted that I missed much of the city on the bus-ride over (somehow I managed to fall asleep upright—I’ve never been able to do that before).
I think the hardest thing so far has really been budgeting. There are so many opportunities to explore not just the city but the countries around us. I want to experience as much as possible while I am here and it can be hard to choose one thing over another. I really wish we’d been given a meal plan as I feel I would be able to do so much more, but in the end (especially with the conversion of the dollar to the pound) a lot of my money has gone to food. I have also had to spend a bit on clothes as I didn’t anticipate just how cold it would be (or how expensive laundry would be—in the end, investing in more clothes is just cheaper).
I am currently spending the weekend in Scotland and, despite the ridiculously cold and rainy weather, it is probably the best thing I have ever experienced. My friends and I are staying in Edinburgh where we AirB ‘N B’d a great flat (beds for each of us, a kitchen, TV, and free food and wine)! It’s Friday the 13th so we went on a ghost tour and learned a lot about the city’s eerie history. The architecture is incredible, as are the surrounding hills. You don’t have to walk far to see some really breath-taking sights. Tomorrow we plan to do a mini pub crawl and visit all the sites where JK Rowling got her inspiration for the Harry Potter series.
I’ll be reporting more soon!
